The 2013 budget is going to hopefully be a turning point for Brantford city council.
While there is much swagger at times around the council table about pulling the trigger on being in businesses the city doesn’t need to be in, that trigger requires six votes. While some councillors are happy to pull out the gun and wave it around and place their finger on the trigger, they haven’t had fingers from the other hands on council needed to make it happen. This to the point the swagger is lost and the gun gets put away until the TV cameras are back on and it’s a little closer to budget time.
On Monday council received a blunt assessment of its fiscal realities from its treasurer and department heads. It also learned that it needs to stick to its strategic financial plan — it has a nasty habit of not doing so, refrain from in-year additions to the budget and stop spending money it hasn’t received yet.
So here’s the deal— this council deserves to know what services you could live with less of, or not even continue to receive from the city itself. There’s a great continuum of service chart produced by the city (image of it below) that might help you decide.
It’ll work even better if you — and all members of council for that matter — keep the discussion on the services you *already use* that meet that answer. Cutting things you don’t use or don’t care about is easy. The difficult work, the most meaningful, is in looking at the things that matter to you and asking the question for that service.
No more cutting off fingers and toes. It’s time to think about what arm or leg you can live without— and if you’re not prepared to do that, then be prepared to lose credibility (and tonnes of it) when you complain about your property tax burden.
Categories: Brantford, Dissention in the ranks, Money
Brantford
Hugo, the most interesting fact to come out of the retreat is that public consultation on the city’s finances is only going to happen at the end of the budget making process, long after departmental budgets have been set and approved by the Senior Management Team, and even after they’ve been presented to council in committee.
There was supposed to be mandated public consultation process for the 2012 budget. Then there was the offer of a Taxpayers Bill of Rights, with its promise of “a broader public discourse on the collection and allocation of tax dollars,” offering “a longer term view of tax collection and allocation.”
If people have a “Right to have multiple mechanisms to present to Council before and during budget process,” why is public input on the budget only scheduled for December, at the end of the process and only weeks before decisions are made by the Estimates Commitee?
The process as outlined at the retreat makes that “Bill of Rights” a sham, a weak exercise in public relations and a disappointment. If people truly have a right to participate in setting financial priorities for the city, its going to have to be a right that we give ourselves.
Good points— I did neglect to mention the consultation on the taxpayers’ bill and the service delivery review is supposed to take place over the summer / early fall. I’ve heard no change to that time line and the budget-related stuff above would fall in just afterwards.
However, the point about the Bill of Rights vs. six-question finance committee is taken. There is a ridiculous war of sorts that may be occurring behind the scenes about financial stuff with councillors falling into their traditional camps.
Hugo
In 2008 the city of Brantford decided that it was going to make this a university town, So they exproprated land all over the city kicking out residents from their homes in order to build new homes for all the students they wanted to move into town. This was not the nicest building in town but it was the best I could afford in an area that was convenient to me.
When the city decided to take our home we were given 3 months and minimal financial help to get another place! The place I got stuck moving into has been just great!!! There is no security, I have had several “clients” come to my door looking for there dope dealer and a few have even letthemselves into my place when the door had been inadvertantly left unlocked. There is a little one down the hall who picked up a chip bag that 3 syringes fell out of, If that child’s father hadn’t been right there that baby could have been poisoned or killed but the city doesn’t care about any of it’s citizens as long as the needs of the students are met. These kids are going to leave in a few years and then this will be a ghost town because nothing isz being done to keep regular citizens here.There are people who work here, have kids school here, while others live on Ontario Works ,ODSP and the like because they have no choice but the only people this city cares about is the students and how much money they will bring in to this town
Joyce:
Interesting points. However, they’re only tangentially related to this post, which is about the 2013 budget. The city has decided to hitch one of its wagons on post-secondary education. But the day where it invested in capital — buying land, building things for WLU or other post-secondary things — are long over (with one potential exception, which is the Laurier YMCA project– which the city has a $5.8-million commitment, in principle, towards at this point).
As long as the university and colleges are here, there will always be students here. While you’re correct in stating not all students stay in the places where they go to college or university (I didn’t), some of them do. Slowly, that population reaches a critical mass– of educated people seeking and creating their own sustainable employment.
That said, I haven’t seen the city neglecting its other residents simply for the sake of its post-secondary students. The downtown is changing– it’s becoming a post-secondary school campus. Well-managed, this could be a very good thing. Poorly managed, it won’t be– and there are only too many examples of student slums in university towns in Ontario to prove that.
I understand your points however– thanks for making them.
Hugo